Cuvier's "Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe"

I love antique books, and I like to find notable science books from the nineteenth century. Every so often, I write about them on this blog, teaching myself many new things in the process. Click the label "science" below, and you'll find my previous posts (along with my Galapagos photos!).

This is book with the bright red binding is an 1850 edition of the 1826 text, Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe (Discourse on the upheavals [or revolutions] of the surface of the globe), by Georges Cuvier (1769-1832).

Cuvier had numerous scientific accomplishments. He founded the field of vertebrate paleontology and grouped extinct species into Linnaean taxonomy. He also established extinction as a scientific fact, a controversial conclusion at the time. His study of the geology around Paris founded the principles of biostratigraphy, and he also named the species “mastodon” and “pterodactyl.”

Cuvier followed the catastrophist theory of geology: the theory that the earth’s features could be explained by catastrophic events. He believed that there had been not one but numerous such events, which not only explained geological phenomena but also different kinds of fauna. He advance the theory in his 1812 Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupèdes (Researches on quadruped fossil bones), and in revised detail in his 1826 Discours sur les révolutions. Ultimately, the theory of uniformitarianism—the earth's features have developed gradually over time—became the leading geological principle following the researches of Charles Lyell and others. But Cuvier's insights, like extinction, were influential for later science, including Darwin's theories.

Discours can be found in English translation here: http://geology.19thcenturyscience.org/books/1831-Cuvier-Revolutions/htm/doc.html